Amateur talent show? Top mentors are my students.

After the weekend, the pace at the villa suddenly quickened.

Jiang Yining left home at 6:20 a.m. on Monday.

The school has exams this week, and she teaches math to two classes. She has four classes a day, plus invigilation and grading, and her voice is hoarse when she gets home at night.

Lin Zhen's case was suddenly moved up in time for trial, and he spent three consecutive days working overtime at the law firm until the early hours of the morning. When he returned to the villa, everyone in the building was asleep.

Needless to say, Wu Jiayuan also experienced a sudden influx of young flu patients due to the drop in temperature. She worked two consecutive night shifts, and when she returned, her dark circles were almost down to her chin. She could fall asleep as soon as she lay down on the sofa.

Sun Zhuohang received notification of the audition results on Monday.

He was in his room making a phone call early in the morning, his voice very low, but the soundproofing wasn't very good. He Xu overheard it in the hallway and figured it was probably over; he could join the production team after the variety show ended.

Zhuang Wenmin took on a makeup and styling project for a fashion week, leaving early and returning late every day.

Sometimes, when He Xu went downstairs to get water in the early morning, he would see her sitting in the corner of the living room flipping through color swatches. Only one floor lamp was on in the living room, and she was huddled in a corner of the sofa, with a whole coffee table full of makeup and styling plans spread out beside her.

He Xu himself is the busiest of them all.

NOVA's new album promotion period has begun in full swing, and He Xu, as the choreographer, has to attend several rehearsals for music show stages.

The trainees from Banxing will soon be on their Spring Festival holiday, and Da Zhou and Xiao Fei have been sending him messages one after another urging him to go over and keep an eye on them one last time.

Shen Yiheng's new song MV shooting has also started. He agreed to help with stage coordination. Although he doesn't need to be there every day, he has to go at least three days a week to oversee the rehearsals.

Zhuang Jun's car would stop in front of the villa at 7:20 every morning. He Xu would open the car door and get in, and sometimes he would even eat breakfast in the car.

The time we returned to the villa at night was getting later and later, from seven or eight o'clock at the beginning, to nine o'clock, and then to ten o'clock and beyond.

One day, it was almost eleven o'clock when he came in. One of the living room lights was still on. Jiang Yining was leaning back on the sofa grading papers. When she saw him come in, she looked up and said, "You're so late again today?"

"The rehearsal is delayed." He Xu hung his coat on the coat rack in the entryway and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Have you eaten?

"I ate the food that Aunt Zhuang brought on the bus."

"That's fine then." Jiang Yining closed the test paper, yawned, and went upstairs.

Although I'm busy, there are still many small moments of happiness every day.

Or rather, amidst the chaos and commotion, there was a human touch.

NOVA's group messages never stopped from morning till night.

Yang Sheng posts a "Good morning, Teacher He" message at 7:00 every morning without fail, rain or shine, more punctual than an alarm clock.

Jiang Yang would send a selfie every few days, at such a tricky angle that He Xu always wanted to kick him out of the group chat.

Li Bufan sends voice messages most frequently, often starting at forty seconds. He Xu never listens to them, directly converting them to text, and eight out of ten of the converted messages are nonsense.

But there was one thing he listened to carefully.

That night, He Xu had just returned from his companion's place and was taking his medicine in the kitchen when his phone vibrated. Li Bufan had sent him a video.

At the end of the video, Li Bufan zooms the camera in on his face: "Brother He Xu! Look how well we're in sync! We danced pretty well even without you!"

He Xu put down his water glass and typed a reply: "You're all in sync, but your chorus is too slow overall."

There was a ten-second silence on the other end, then Li Bufan replied with a long string of ellipses. Jiang Yang commented "Hahahahahaha" below, and Yang Sheng sent "I knew it."

He Xu smiled at the screen, put his phone back in his pocket, and went upstairs.

Da Zhou told him about Ian's situation.

When He Xu was too busy, he would have Ian attend large classes with NOVA—he's become less resistant to crowds lately.

Anyway, Aurora's practice room is empty, so Da Zhou can keep an eye on one more person while he's teaching. He Xu has already made arrangements, so it won't take much trouble.

That day, He Xu took some time to call Da Zhou and ask how the classes were going. Da Zhou clicked his tongue on the other end and said, "He Xu, your Korean kid is pretty good."

"How can that be?"

"When he first came, he stood on the very edge, not talking to anyone, just dancing by himself. This week is different. He moved to the middle on his own initiative, and he's dancing incredibly well—he's got real talent! Now I finally understand why you went to all that trouble to bring him back to China; it was totally worth it!"

The conversation went smoothly. It was better than I expected.

Park Soo-young would occasionally give him feedback.

Ian's social life has improved a lot recently. After getting to know the NOVA group, he talks more when he gets home.

Back in Los Angeles, he would barely say a few words all day, but now he'll tell her things like, "That gray-haired guy jumped into the wrong place today" or "Li Bufan asked me if I wanted to eat spicy hot pot."

Fang Yicheng's messages came almost every day.

It's not always a formal report; sometimes it's just a picture of the food in the cafeteria with the caption, "Bro, the cafeteria made braised pork today, but it wasn't very good."

Sometimes it's when the mock exam results come out, and you take a picture of the report card. In the math section, there's a big red circle around the score, followed by three exclamation marks.

He Xu's replies were brief, but he responded to every single one.

Fang Yicheng once sent a message saying, "Brother, are you particularly busy? Your replies are getting shorter and shorter."

He Xu thought for a moment and typed: "Busy, but I've read everything you said. Good at math, continue."

An emoji immediately popped up on the other end—a Corgi nodding frantically.

Chen Jingru recovered faster than he had expected.

Fang Yicheng said that his mother can now get out of bed and take a few steps on her own. She still speaks a little slowly, but she has no problem recognizing people and having conversations.

He Xu video calls Chen Jingru every few days, for a short time, only three to five minutes.

The signal on Chen Jingru's end was not very good, and the picture was choppy, but you could see her leaning against the headboard, her face had regained some color, and the corners of her mouth were curved when she spoke.

"Don't keep calling if you're busy," Chen Jingru said on the other end of the video call, her voice weak, typical of someone recovering from illness. "I'm fine, your Uncle Fang and Chengcheng are keeping an eye on me."

"Making a call won't be a problem." He Xu leaned against the corridor wall, steadying his phone. "What did you eat today?"

"Porridge. Your Uncle Fang cooked it, and it turned out like paste."

He Xu chuckled.

Jiang Yanbai's messages came irregularly.

He was in Los Angeles, which is 15 hours ahead of time. Often, He Xu would receive messages from him in the middle of the night, which were sent in the afternoon.

Sometimes it's a photo from the recording studio, sometimes it's a long rant about the producer, and sometimes it's just a simple "The recording went okay today."

He Xu never took it too seriously, and sometimes he would just leave it at that if he was too lazy to reply.

One evening, after he finished showering, he found a missed call on his phone from Jiang Yanbai.

He dialed back, and the other end answered quickly. The background noise was very quiet, probably from an apartment.

"Xiao Xu." Jiang Yanbai's voice was a little lazy, but you could tell he was in a good mood. "What are your plans for the Spring Festival?"

He Xu leaned against the headboard and pulled the blanket up to cover his chest: "It's not decided yet. I should stay in China. NOVA has an event for Chinese New Year, and I'll probably have to keep an eye on it."

"That's perfect, I'll go back to China too."

He Xu paused for a moment: "You're going back to China?"

"Well, my work at the recording studio is almost finished. I'll leave the album's post-production mixing to the team. There aren't any plans for me to be present around the Spring Festival," Jiang Yanbai said slowly. "I'll go back and stay for a while."

He Xu paused for a moment, then asked, "Where will you stay when you come back?"

Is your dorm room convenient?

"……inconvenient."

"Then I'll stay at a hotel."

"You can stay wherever you want." He Xu pulled the blanket up a bit. "When are you arriving?"

"My flight is for the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, and I should land on the morning of the 28th." Jiang Yanbai paused, then added, "Will you pick me up then?"

He Xu closed his eyes briefly, recalling the scene last year when he was surrounded by Jiang Yanbai's fans at the airport, and how poorly he managed his facial expressions back then.

"If you're not afraid of being photographed, I'll go pick you up."

"What am I afraid of?" Jiang Yanbai's voice carried a hint of amusement. "I haven't done anything wrong. Besides, your arrival at the airport is news, and my return is news too. Putting them together saves on a publicity campaign."

"You're quite good at keeping accounts."

"I learned it from you."

He Xu couldn't help but chuckle.

After hanging up the phone, he leaned against the headboard and stared at the ceiling for a while.

Jiang Yanbai is going back to China for the Spring Festival.

I flew back from Los Angeles, landed on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, and stayed in the country until after the New Year.

This means that while he's busy here, that person will suddenly appear in his life's radius—the airport, the dormitory, the corridor of Aurora Media, or any place he usually frequents.

He found himself actually looking forward to it.